International gang suspected in carpark scam

Maarten Kleintjes. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A banking investigation has raised the possibility that stolen credit card details of tens of thousands of New Zealanders are in the hands of a Russian or Albanian gang.

The theft of credit card details from payment machines at the Downtown carpark in central Auckland had all the hallmarks of a Russian or Albanian hacking ring preying on soft targets, a source close to the investigation told the Herald.

The investigation is being conducted by Westpac Bank, with the help of the Auckland City Council, which owns and operates the 1970-space Downtown carpark.

The source said the gang was believed to be based in the United States, but probably masked its identity by using internet addresses in other countries.

Several people have contacted the Herald to say their credit cards were used fraudulently to buy goods at a Walmart chain store in the American city of Phoenix, Arizona, after being used at the Downtown carpark.

Police National Electronic Crime Laboratory manager Maarten Kleintjes said he had no doubt the carpark scam was carried out by organised crime.

"I would guess they would come from the Eastern European countries, that's where they all come from," he said.

Members of crime groups came to New Zealand to attach skimming devices to ATM machines and send credit card details back to their bosses overseas.

But the Herald source believes the gang used a more sophisticated form of credit card theft, called spoofing, in which criminals forge an internet address to conceal their identity and sniff the internet for targets they can break into and steal information.

Russian and other eastern European rings dominate computer fraud. They are often run by former KGB agents who recruit young hackers to steal credit card and bank account numbers.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said New Zealand representatives of Interpol and fraud staff at police national headquarters had not been advised of the scam.

Westpac and other banks, Mastercard and Visa have refused to reveal the scale of the problem.

The banks are scrambling to replace the credit and debit cards of anyone who has used the Downtown carpark. More than 100,000 cards are believed to be affected.

Westpac is refusing to say how long the scam ran, but a source in the finance industry said it was possibly years.

Auckland IT consultant Steven Ellis said he received a new credit card three weeks ago to replace a card he last used at the Downtown carpark about 14 months ago.